“Hi, sweetie,” says the iconic environmentalist David Suzuki, at the start of a phone interview.

The greeting is not to the reporter on the line, but his daughter, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, 33, or “Sev,” as he calls her, who has just joined the conference call.

He’s in Vancouver, she’s in Haida Gwaii, off the coast of B.C., where she lives with her husband and two children.

It’s no secret the apple has fallen close to the tree. The world was introduced to Severn in 1992, through a speech she made at Rio de Janeiro’s Earth Summit — a video that went viral before the term was coined.

Father and daughter have made many appearances together since, but Monday will be the first time they’ve spoke together. The pair will appear at Roy Thomson Hall, with Unique Lives & ExperiencesUnique Lives & Experiences, the Star-sponsored lecture series.

“My wife and I never set out to train a little greenie or tree hugger,” says the senior Suzuki. “Sev, from a very early age, got interested in these issues.”

Q: Severn, the speech you gave at the Earth Summit when you were 12 became famous for the anger and fear you articulated. You’re a parent now. Has that changed?

S: A theme throughout my life has been the intergenerational relationships human beings have. My whole method while I was young was really an appeal as a child. I didn’t have education or a position, but I had the angle of hoping to remind people of their children.

As a parent, I understand that on an individual level parents would do anything for their child. When we look as a society, we’ve really lost the connection between our actions and the future. That’s something I’ve been exploring my whole life and I still question.

Q: David, are your daughters, Sarika and Severn, the heirs apparent of the Suzuki environmental dynasty?

D: I never thought of it in that way. I hope that Sarika and Severn are representative of their generation. Environmentalism isn’t a discipline or specialty. It’s a way of seeing our place in the world. And we need everybody to see the world that way. Don’t think ‘In order to make a difference I have to become an environmentalist.’

S: You’re stealing my material, Dad.

Q: What’s dinner conversation like at the Suzuki table?

S: Very depressing (laughs). No, it’s been great growing up in a household where we do talk about global events. On the one hand there’s awareness, but on the other hand a sense of ‘What are we going to do about it?’

That was why I didn’t just tune out, because I had an outlet for feeling powerful, like I could do something about these really overwhelmingly big problems. Growing up there was always a sense of ‘We have so many gifts and we have to use that for the betterment of the planet.’

D: But Sev, it wasn’t all ‘We gotta fight this and that.’ We had a lot of wonderful adventures getting to see places. One of my great worries was of being involved in the media. I was away from the family a lot and the one way I tried to make up for it was to take you to as many places as I could so you could experience the richness of the earth. Being an environmentalist isn’t all about doom and gloom.

Q: Yet Severn has called her mother, Tara Cullis, the family optimist. David, are you pessimistic about the future?

D: If you’re not being pessimistic, you’re not being very realistic. But I think one must always have hope, and when you have children of course you have no choice but to work your tail off to try and protect the future for your children. And that is infused by hope in the end.

Q: David, we last saw you naked in 2006, at age 70. Any plans to update the image?

D: Next month is my 77th birthday, and you know the relentless pull of gravity means you have some things drooping. I don’t get to the gym as often as I should. No more posing naked.

S: Thank you, Dad!

The Suzukis speak at Roy Thomson Hall at 7:30 p.m. Limited tickets available at 416-872-4255 or roythomson.com.

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